As the town become more clear in the distance, the situation was playing out in front of us: Celestia and the royal guards were trying to subdue and apprehend the human attackers but to no avail. The humans were armed with stun batons and net guns. For the ponies, dealing with that without getting hurt was the issue. As the humans front line dealt with the ponies, the others were dragging the captured ponies and throwing them down a top shaft of a single boxcar.
Jenna started the brakes, which made the grating sound of steel meeting steel and signaled our arrival. I was too focused on the upcoming fight to concentrate on that. The Train slowed to a stop at the edge of the town's train station and we wasted no time to get out and racing to the middle of town to fight and help the ponies. We flanked the human raiders on their side, which turned the tide of the battle. I aimed right to a very tall attacker wearing military fatigue cargo pants and a black tank top, showing his bulging muscles. He took a swing with his stun baton but I slid passed by ducking, giving me a quick and easy chance to knock him down by taking out the back of his knee with a sweeping kick.
The others were having a good time with our attack as well. Trisha was the only one with a weapon, wich she opted to use a tazer, and she was not afraid to use it. Nassir was unleashing powerful right hooks left and right, knocking down whoever caught the full brunt of them. Joshua was knocking them down with one punch as well. We had only been there for a few minutes, but we felt that we had turned back the raid since they were beginning their retreat, We could hear their train slow fire up and they were shouting commands in Russian, and dragging any stragglers to their feet to run away. We all gave chase, knowing that if we lost them then we might as well lose the ponies in the boxcar for good.
By the time we started taking off running, the attackers were packing inside the engine car and were hoping they were not too late in trying to get out of there. Trisha was the first to stop from the lack of energy in the chase, leaving the rest of us trying to reach the train station.
"We are not going to stop them!' Nassir huffed as we continued to run.
"I'm not trying to stop them!" Jenna said. As we continued.
"What do you mean?!" he replied.
"Follow my lead!" she said as she made a left.
We followed her and took another left in the dirt street. We followed straight down until we were on the far end of the station, where our train was resting.
"Climb the boxes!" Jenna hollered as she jumped on the wooden crates behind the station that were stacked all the way to the roof the station. We followed and as soon as we got on the roof, we saw the train starting to leave the station.
"This is where it gets fun!" Jenna shouted as she took off, running parallel with the train from the roof. She took a leap when she ran out of space to run and landed belly first on the freight car. The rest of us took off sprinting, Brock and Nassir were in front of me while Joshua was way behind me. Nassir and Brock also jumped to the roof of the train when they ran out of real estate, landing perfectly on the wooden boxcar
I took the leap as well, trying not to hesitate or think about what I was doing. I felt my stomach churn when it looked like I was not going to make it, but I ended up perfectly in the middle of the moving cart anyway.
I turned to see Josh hesitate for a moment and stop on the roof of the train station, watching us leave the station.
"Well, that makes just the three of us!" Jenna said.
"What is our plan?!" Brock asked, trying to be heard from the blowing wind.
"Brother! Come with me!" she said as we both started crawling on all fours to the front edge of the cart. Below me, I heard the cries and the yelling for help from the ponies in the cart. As soon as we reached the edge, we gingerly climbed down to a metal bar that was above the coupler, Jenna handed me a crowbar.
"Hold on to this, pull the pin out when the time comes!" She said
"What are you doing?!" I asked, worried she was going to do something drastic. Turned out I was right.
She lowered herself and took a leap to the standing bar on the engine car, nearly slipping and falling. After she positioned herself, she pulled a weird box with wires and a small metal rod sticking out of it from her messenger bag. She pulled the piece of paper below it and stuck it in a grove in the box car. When she was done, she positioned herself and jumped back to the bar on our side, this time I was able to catch her.
"Okay! Pull the pin out!" she said.
I got on one knee as she pinned me to the boxcar to keep my balance. I stuck the wedge under the pin and lifted as hard as I can, the pin slowly budging. Then, with a loud scraping sound, the pin flew in the air as the cars began to separate, the engine slowly disappearing down the track as the boxcar slowed.
"How far are we from Appleoosa?!" I shouted
Brock looked back and looked back down "It's a speck in the distance."
Oh great.
Some pegasus guards arrived a few moments later and labored as they slowly pushed the boxcar down the tracks. It was only when it was close enough where they stopped, and the boxcar opened to a flood of ponies stampeding out to be reunited with worried loved ones. Of course, something like that could be rewarded without being tackled by Rainbow Dash with a kiss.
Rarity and Applejack were frantically searching, pale with fear and nearly breaking down
"Whats wrong, gals?" Rainbow said as she got off me and started flipping mid air.
"We can't find Applebloom or Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo is missing too!" Applejack said.
Oh crap.
One of the freed ponies spoke up "They took them to the main engine car!"
Oh shit.